They more or less did. Check out TrekCore's screencap section and you'll see. The new effects are both obvious, but at the same time look so close to the original versions that there is no problem.

That said, I wouldn't mind having the bonus stuff on DVD. I'm referring now to the audio commentaries and the extended version of the second season Data on trial episode (I'm actually drawing a blank on the title, of a TNG episode no less, can you believe THAT.), because I will never upgrade to Blue Ray. It came out WAAAAAY too soon.

That said, I wouldn't mind having the bonus stuff on DVD. I'm referring now to the audio commentaries and the extended version of the second season Data on trial episode (I'm actually drawing a blank on the title, of a TNG episode no less, can you believe THAT.), because I will never upgrade to Blue Ray. It came out WAAAAAY too soon.

It was only a matter of time before we started seeing Blu-ray exclusives... I'm just surprised it took this long.

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It's not really exclusive. It's the same content as the DVDs (minus some special features); it's just been remastered. Aren't there lots of films that get remastered for Blu-ray that don't get a DVD re-issue?

(Granted, most remasters aren't quite so exhaustive and complicated as this!)

That said, I wouldn't mind having the bonus stuff on DVD. I'm referring now to the audio commentaries and the extended version of the second season Data on trial episode (I'm actually drawing a blank on the title, of a TNG episode no less, can you believe THAT.), because I will never upgrade to Blue Ray. It came out WAAAAAY too soon.

And not a single review site mentioned the glaring audio issues with the TNG-R set. So excuse me if I see them as nothing more than shills for the studios when it comes to high-profile releases.

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Yes, yes and thrice yes. It's inadvisable to place too much credibility in the impartiality of these reviews. Personally, I find it absolutely astonishing nary a single review picked up on the glaring audio issues contained across seven episodes in TNG-R.

do dvds offer 7.1 surround? i dont know anything about this technobabble, but i'm just wondering if the audio might also be a reason it isn't on dvd. (everyones been focusing on the visual)

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I think the reason it's not on DVD is because this is a premium title. They want it to stand out in a crowded market as something special.

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And the whole point is that you buy a blu-ray player, and then buy more blu-rays. It's the same as how they didn't release the remastered DVDs on VHS again. Well actually they kind of did in the UK, but only for three or four seasons...

And the whole point is that you buy a blu-ray player, and then buy more blu-rays. It's the same as how they didn't release the remastered DVDs on VHS again. Well actually they kind of did in the UK, but only for three or four seasons...

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Wow, REALLY? They rereleased it on VHS? Talk about a waste of time and money!

If the demand is there, people will buy it, and companies are notoriously fickle about losing money. For those three or four seasons on VHS, you can bet that two or three seasons made profit, and as soon as the final released season lost money, they cancelled it.

I think it's that DVD is good enough mentality that will probably stop TNG-R coming out on DVD. If you have a mid range HD TV, between 35 and 45 inches, then a DVD upscaled will look reasonably good. There's a reason why I'm not running out and double dipping on all my movie DVDs. If it's anamorphic and not letterbox, and if it's a fair transfer, then it's good enough to enjoy on my home cinema without me whinging about clarity or definition.

The original TNG DVDs upscaled to that midrange look like pants to me and upgrading those is a no-brainer. If I have the filmic quality TNG-R on DVD and upscaled that, I wouldn't feel any urge to upgrade that to Blu as that would look good enough to enjoy (obviously nowhere near as good as Blu). That's a strong reason not to release TNG-R on DVD anytime prior to the release of all seven seasons on Blu.

I'd expect Paramount to release it on DVD afterwards, in stripped down, extras free, episode only collections, to eke out every last penny from the few Blu-ray refuseniks that will be left then.

Just for comparison sakes: that's how the difference would be between the current DVD and a remastered PAL DVD. And yeah, it's with the PAL aspect ratio stretch.

They should release it on DVD as well.

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To be honest, you're not really showing us a "remastered PAL DVD" cos it doesn't exist. You're downscaling the BD to 480p resolution, aren't you? If so, then we can't assume a real remastered DVD would look as good, cos BDs have a deeper color palette, better contrast, and less motion artifacts.

Point taken about the colour palette, but given the size of the images, about 200kb, they probably have more compression applied than would be applied on DVD. You're also right that motion artefacts and the like would also impinge on the final quality.

It would still be better than the existing DVDs.

Actually, given the price that Paramount are charging for the Blu's I'm surprised that they aren't released as Triple Plays combos to begin with, with DVD and digital included. That would have satisfied everyone.

To be honest, you're not really showing us a "remastered PAL DVD" cos it doesn't exist. You're downscaling the BD to 480p resolution, aren't you? If so, then we can't assume a real remastered DVD would look as good, cos BDs have a deeper color palette, better contrast, and less motion artifacts.

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Just compare the TOS DVDs to the TOS-R DVDs and you'll see that it would be worthwhile. Trekcore has caps from the original DVDs and the BDs and I'd be happy to contribute with more screencaps from my TOS-R DVDs for anyone who's interested.

And the whole point is that you buy a blu-ray player, and then buy more blu-rays. It's the same as how they didn't release the remastered DVDs on VHS again. Well actually they kind of did in the UK, but only for three or four seasons...

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Wow, REALLY? They rereleased it on VHS? Talk about a waste of time and money!

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Yep, seasons 1-5 were re-released on 3-or-4-episode tapes between 1998 - 2002. In fairness, when they began in 1998, DVD was only JUST coming onto the market, and was really really expensive. I suspect a lot of VHS manufacturers (whatever happened to CIC anyway?) hoped it would go the way of laserdisc.

Of course, by 2002, the writing was on the wall, hence why TNG season 6-7 was never re-released, and Enterprise only got season 1 released on video.

I have four DVD players, and not enough access to the HD TV... But I'm speaking generally, not personally, as Blu-ray saturation still isn't sufficient enough to warrant Blu-ray only releases. Most everything that comes out on Blu-ray is available on DVD, and TNG's remaster is pretty rare in that it's Blu-ray exclusive at this time.

EDIT: Just been listening to an anime podcast from a UK anme distributor, and at around the halfway mark, there's some conversation about Blu-rays and DVD, and an interesting statistic is that even in first world Japan, Blu-rays will sell only 30% of the numbers that DVDs sell. Sony wanting a licencing chunk of every BD disc manufactured is slowing the proliferation of the medium.

I would never have thought that a physical home medium would be in competition with high speed broadband and subscription based streaming services. I guess another related question is if the remastered episodes on Netflix yet?

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What was the market saturation like when it was DVD vs VHS? It took several years for DVD to become dominant over CHS. With BR vs DVD however it is different whilst there is an improvement in picture quality with BR, for many DVD is good enough. So BR is finding it harder to establish itself than DVD had over VHS.

I remember BR only having at most a couple of metre's or so in shops a few years back now they can have 4 or 5 times that. Whilst at the same time the space given to DVD has shrunk.